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Today we're going to be teaching you
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five magic tricks you can do yourself at
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home to impress your friends. Actually,
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even better than magic tricks because
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they use science like a levitating orb.
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Oh, Emma needs her ladle back. A These
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are tricks that I've never seen before.
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And they're going to be performed by our
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former middle school science teacher and
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even former middle school magician,
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Science Bob Fluke Felder. Here we go.
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Trick number one involved nothing more
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than a metal ring, Bob's finger, and
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some uncomfortable prolonged eye
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contact. Ready?
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Yeah. What the heck was that? There's no
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hinge on here. Let me just try it. One,
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two. Okay, maybe there's Oh, no. So,
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this is a trick that uses persistence of
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vision. We have buildbox toys that
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utilize persistent vision. That's true.
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The coin spinner. You spin the coin and
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it looks like Saturn has rings, but
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really it's just a circle on one side
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and rings on the other. I'm literally
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just pushing my finger. So, at one point
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my pinky looks like that, but you don't
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see that. If you do it just right. 1 2
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3. Wow. Persistence of vision relies on
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the fact that your eyes can only send a
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limited number of visual pictures to the
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brain each second. Because the pinky
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bend happens so fast. There's a good
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chance your eyes never sent that part of
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the trick to your brain. Which means
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your brain has to assume the ring just
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went through your finger. Even though it
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knows that's really not possible. And
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that's how you can pull out this
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mind-blowing trick like I do. Huh? Huh?
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Nate's laughing so I don't think it
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works. after maybe a bit more practice.
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Oh, dang it. Stop laughing. For trick
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number two, Bob threw down not one, not
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two, but three cups and then filled just
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one of them with water, at which point
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he gave me a challenge. I will scramble
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up the cup. Try to remember which one
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has the water in it. Easy. And this one.
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Here we go. And mixing and mixing and
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mixing and mixing and mixing. Okay, one,
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two, or three. Easy one. Let's see if
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you are right. You are. Hopefully you
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got that at home. That means we're going
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to the next level. It's in this spinner
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one. Yep. There we go. And there we go.
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There we go. Mixing. Mixing. Let's do
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that. One, two, three. Feel like that
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was even easier, Bob. Number two. Thank
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you very much. If you're right, you are.
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One more time. One more time. It's in
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this one. Okay. Going. Going. Going.
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Going. All right. One, two, or three?
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Two. Let's see if you're right. Uh,
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what? One or three? Three. Are you
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right? No. So, here's the weird thing.
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There never was any water. Believe it or
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not, the science behind this is the same
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science that's used in diapers.
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Whoa. You need to get your hands on some
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diapers. Go and say, "Hey, can I borrow
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a diaper?" Yeah, that's not weird. You
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immediately see all this white powder
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coming out of there. Cool. And this
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white powder turns out to be a liquid
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absorbing polymer. Which explains why
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it's in diapers. So Bob grabbed some
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clear cups to show me the secret was
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putting a little bit of the polymer into
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just one of the cups. And then after
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transferring water between the two empty
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cups, poured it into the polymer cup.
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After which that water absorbing polymer
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starts doing the work. And after just a
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little bit of time, no water in there.
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No water in that one. And no water in
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that one.
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Wo, that is wild. And magic. Oh, and
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after a quick clean up of the mess Bob's
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diaper left, we got to trick number
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three, which involved a big bottle of
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water containing a tiny packet of
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ketchup. Bring your hand near it and it
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will drop. It takes the warmth from your
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hand and it will change the density.
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There it is, Bob. That's not a valid
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explanation. Are you saying I was lying?
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Yes, I'm saying you were lying.
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Magicians lie a lot. It has nothing to
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do with the heat from your hand. Totally
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made that up. What it does have to do
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with is water pressure. So, if I want
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this to sink, all I got to do is
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actually squeeze this. Almost
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imperceivable squeeze will make that go
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down. This is called the Cartisian
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diver. Water can't compress, but the
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little air bubble inside of the ketchup
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can compress. So, when I squeeze this,
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that changes the density, and that
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causes it to sink until I release it.
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So, that means the combination of the
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ketchup, the packet, and that air bubble
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is really close to the density of water.
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It's almost neutally buoyant, right?
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Almost. It turns out there's a secret
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ingredient to this trick cuz if you put
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the ketchup packet in regular water, you
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can see how this one's not floating the
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way. Yeah, it's not really floating. So,
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you just add some salt and shake it up.
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It's going to increase the density of
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the water. Oh, now it definitely floats.
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It's floating. See, there it goes. Wow.
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And because salt water is denser than
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regular water, ketchup will float on it
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as long as the air bubble stays big. But
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when you squeeze the bottle, water
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pressure pushes all those little
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molecules of air in the bubble closer
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together. And that slight change in
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volume increases the density of the
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ketchup packet compared to the water
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around it. And just like magic, the
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packet sinks.
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Force. Now that Bob had busted out the
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force, it was time for trick number
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four, where he was going to show off
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further Jedi powers using a balloon, a
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ring cut from a plastic bag, and his own
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hair. So, what this is doing is putting
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a negative charge on it, and it's making
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your hair look cool.
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And then, if all goes well, they will.
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Isn't that cool? It's a balloon halo.
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Isn't that neat? You don't need to be a
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Jedi to pull this off, thanks to
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electrons. All materials in the world
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contain tiny particles called electrons
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which have a negative charge. Certain
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materials like plastic bags and whiffle
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ball bats are able to pick up negative
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charges from other materials like your
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hair which gives away the charge easily.
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But it turns out that negative charges
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absolutely don't like hanging out
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together and so they'll repel away from
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each other just like negative sides of a
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magnet repel each other. And so if one
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of those objects with a negative charge
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is light enough, like say a ring cut
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from a plastic bag, the repelling force
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is strong enough relative to gravity to
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push it away and make it float. Oh, it's
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like a UFO. Can I try? Yeah. Do I got to
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use your hair?
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Sure. Okay.
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[Music]
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Oh, yeah.
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There you go.
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No way. I can move it up and down. I go
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to the left. I go forward. I come back.
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I am an actual wizard. That or its
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electrons repelling each other. And feel
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free to get creative with the shapes you
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cut out. It's a jellyfish. All right,
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jellyfish. We're going for a walk. After
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taking a brief intermission so Bob could
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tend to my jellyfish sting, my face. We
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moved on to the next trick, which only
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involves a pen and a water bottle. This
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doesn't always work. I'm going to try it
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without the cap this time. See if it
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works better. All right, here we go.
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One, two, three.
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Whoa.
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Check it out. What the heck just
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happened? Okay, if you squeeze it, that
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must be it. You squeeze it. Wait,
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nothing's happening. F. So, this was a
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brain trick. Let's talk a little bit
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about light defraction. So, this works
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because the sides are round and so this
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acts as a lens. And so, when we tip it
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over, I can't see I can't see it that
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pen at all. Then we bring the pen up. I
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can turn it. Your eyes are now on the
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pen, right? So, you're not even thinking
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about one being behind. Now, I take
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advantage of light defraction the other
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way. So, I can slip this away and all of
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your attention is on that. But, let's
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see if the final trick could beat it,
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which started promisingly with another
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balloon. Now, if I can put this very
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pointy skewer through this balloon
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without popping it, will you buy me an
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ice cream? I'll buy you 12 ice creams,
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Bob. Excellent. All right. Here we go.
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[Applause]
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Whoa. What?
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There we go. What the heck? Maybe I'll
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go chocolate. What the heck? That feels
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like it shouldn't be possible. True.
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Because your brain says, "Hey, if
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there's a hole in something, it's
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probably leaking." Yeah. But now we're
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using once again the power of the
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polymer. Can I make a guess? I noticed
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you didn't fully fill this up. Correct.
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So, it's like the rubber's a little bit
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thicker and it almost creates a seal.
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And you also poked it at the bottom
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where I know the rubber's thicker. Yeah.
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And then if you don't want to spoil it,
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you can just take it out. There you go.
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They never have a chance to check it
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out. Bob showed me this trick can also
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be performed with a big freezer bag and
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an absolute rainbow's worth of colored
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pencils. Pick whatever spot you want.
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Really relatively fast and confident. I
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can be fast and confident, Bob. Okay.
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The way you step to the side, though,
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that that was not a confident side step.
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I'm not moving. All right. Here we go. 3
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2 1
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spoiler alert. This was fun.
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That's trippy. It's cuz your brain
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thinks if something is full of water and
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it has a hole in it, it's supposed to
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leak. The polymers are sealing that off.
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In fact, oh no. Maybe it was too fun. Oh
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no. We finally leak. All right. So that
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means I moved a little on that one. For
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our viewers, see how many of these you
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can get in a single bag without that.
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Tag us at Crunch Labs. Winner gets 12
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ice creams. All right. All right. Well,
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there's a bunch of science tricks that
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are better than magic. And now I have a
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final science trick of my
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own. Back to work, Bob. Yes, sir.
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[Music]
